The ties that divide

Memories of east and west, north and south

This fall, Germany observes the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.¹ The Wall, or die Mauer as Germans would call it, was a real wall, but geographically it covered only a fraction of the divide between eastern Germany, then called the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, and western Germany.

We didn’t do photography 25 years ago like we do today, so my collection of pics from the Germany days is pretty skimpy. But here’s a picture of me and my coworkers in the fall of 1999 on the day we packed up our office and my belongings and moved from Cologne to Berlin. The three of us sitting on the truck flap, we’re the team that will drive overnight, including a few hours waiting at a truck stop for a replacement rental truck. About a month after this photo, we three will go to the 10th anniversary Mauerfall celebration concert at the Brandenburg Gate.

Back in the day, Berlin sat in the middle of East Germany and was itself divided—by that famous wall—into East and West. People who lived in West Berlin must have felt as islanders might feel, divided from their mainland not by water but by stringent border controls. Within the city, the wall that was built practically overnight divided neighbours and families for nearly three decades.

I wrote a little more about the former East Germany and the Berlin wall in this post from a year ago. I’ve removed the paywall so folks can read it in full without a paid subscription.

What means exotic?